The following are accounts from local residents who were at or near the scene of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Michael Bower, 54, Framingham

Framingham Selectman Michael Bower had run 25.7 miles for charity and was just a half-mile from the finish line when police shut down the Boston Marathon course.

As confused runners milled around, Bower got word of the bombings and panicked, thinking of his friend who was in harm’s way in the grandstands on Boylston Street in Boston.

"He actually witnessed this horror," Bower said Tuesday. The friend was across the street from where the first bomb went off, and was quickly evacuated by rescuers, Bower said.

Amid the chaos, Bower eventually reunited with his friend and fled the city.

Peter Gould, 51, Framingham

The explosions kept Framingham's Peter Gould, who was running with the Samaritans Team, from completing his first Boston Marathon, but luck may have kept him and his family and friends on the sidelines safe.

Gould’s wife Nancy and their daughter Morgan, along with a group of friends, cheered him on at mile marker 17, then hopped on the T and headed to meet him at the finish line.

Delayed by a bathroom break and a missed train, the group was walking toward the grandstand area in Copley Square and was just a block away when the bombs went off there, Nancy wrote in an email to friends.

In the chaos, they loaned their phones and gave their jackets, as well as Advil, snacks and water, to dazed and shivering runners. Eventually, they found Gould.

Ed Stoll, 56, Framingham

Framingham’s Ed Stoll said he’ll never forget the feeling of helplessness after police shut down the Boston Marathon course and locked down Copley Square.

"It’s a moment that you remember for the rest of your life, that’s for sure," he said.

Stoll was on pace to run his first marathon in under five hours and set to meet his family at the finish line when police stopped the marathoners in their tracks.

"It’s just terrible," he said, "and when they just tell you ‘stop’ and then the rumors spread and you don’t know where your family is, it’s a pure feeling of helplessness."

Fortunately, Stoll texted and learned that his wife, aunt, daughter and grandson, who turns 5 next month, were safe. They eventually connected in Boston.

Patricia Reske, 51, Westborough

Patricia Reske’s finish time was the last one to be logged for a Westborough runner.

Reske, who is a BAA volunteer and was running her 10th Boston Marathon, said she finished minutes before the first explosion, and was with her family in a stairwell of a hotel near the finish line at the time the bombs went off.

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Still shaken from the experience, Reske said her "mind is with the people who are not OK" Tuesday.

"I’m just saddened, my heart and prayers go to people who weren’t so fortunate," she said.

Reske ran the Marathon a few minutes faster than she anticipated – a miscalculation she’s grateful for since it meant she did not cross the finish line as the blasts went off.

Gary Kelley, Westborough

Westborough resident Gary Kelley had been standing near the finish line for 15 minutes as the first bomb exploded.

Kelley was waiting for his 25-year-old daughter, who was running as a bandit, to complete the race.

"It sounded like a deep rumble," Kelley said. "I thought maybe it was a celebratory cannon, but then we looked down the street and saw smoke."

Erin Kelley, a Westborough High School graduate, could see the 26-mile marker when she and other runners were stopped, her father said.

Though his family was separated briefly, Kelley said they eventually reunited and walked to Brighton where his son, who was working in Wellesley, picked them up.

Patricia McSweeney, 45, Ashland

Patricia McSweeney, who was running to raise money for the Ashland Education Foundation, was near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge when police stopped her and said the race was over.

"I was kind of confused," McSweeney said. "I didn’t know what had happened."

As McSweeney made her way down Commonwealth Avenue, she said she saw countless people helping runners. One man gave McSweeney a sweatshirt to wear. Another man had a Poland Spring jug from a water bubbler and was offering drinks to people. There was also a woman offering her cell phone to runners so they could call their loved ones.

"The people on Commonwealth Avenue were unbelievable," said McSweeney. "As an American I was proud."

Rachel Harrison, 24, Newton resident and former Holliston resident

Rachel Harrison, whose parents Michael and Andrea live in Holliston, finished the race about six minutes before the first bomb went off. She said her legs were so badly cramped, even in Monday’s situation, she couldn’t run away.

"It was very traumatizing," said Harrison, who now lives in Newton. "I basically crossed the finish line and stopped and my legs almost immediately cramped up. Some random guy picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, ran to some nearby building and we took cover."

Harrison said she immediately tried to call her mother, who was on Boylston Street at the time of the explosions. She said it was about an hour and a half before she finally got in contact with her mother, who was OK.

"It was the worst hour and a half of my life," Harrison said. "It was horrible."

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Patricia Montain, 54, Holliston

Holliston resident Patricia Montain was about a half-mile from the finish line when police stopped her.

"All of a sudden, all these people are stopped and you are expecting (the police) to say we could start again," said Montain.

Montain’s daughter Anna joined her at about the 20th mile, which Montain said she was very grateful for because Anna had her cell phone.

"A lot of people used her phone," said Montain. "She was making calls and sending text for people who didn’t have manual dexterity after running."

Montain’s husband Scott also joined them. He had brought a bag of clothes that they gave to other runners, and Scott even gave the jacket off his back, Montain said.

Josh Cheron, 38, Sudbury

Sudbury runner Josh Cheron finished the race not long before the blasts. He said his family had been at the site of the second bomb 30 minutes before it went off.

"I ran my best Boston and it was a fantastic day up until it wasn’t," he said. "It’s quite sad."

Kristen Pedroli, 36, Hopkinton

Kristen Pedroli, of Hopkinton, had run 25.7 miles when the group of runners in front of her stopped.

"Everybody was just completely confused," she said.

She and her husband, who had joined her at Heartbreak Hill, weaved off the course and took refuge in a bagel shop in Kenmore Square, moving to the Hotel Commonwealth when the shop closed at 5 p.m.

Around 7:30 p.m. they walked to Cambridge where a family member met them with a car.

"I just wanted to get out and get home," she said.

Laura Donia, 43, Hudson

Hudson resident Laura Donia’s husband and children were at the finish line, across the street from where the bombs exploded.

"I am trying not to think about how close they were," she said in an email to friends and family Monday night.

She was in the front of a pack of runners who were stopped a half-mile from the finish.

"Runners were sharing their food, water, and jackets. There were so many acts of kindness between all the runners today during a very confusing time," she wrote.

Meanwhile, her husband came out to where she was on the course and – miraculously – found her.

"I was so happy to see him and the kids! Even after having just run 25.6 miles, I had no problem picking up my baby girl and hugging her so tight!" she wrote.

Wendy Kendrick, 33, Hopkinton

Hopkinton mom Wendy Kendrick crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon in exhilaration Monday, having beat her goal time of 3:35 by more than 6 minutes.

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Ten minutes later, when twin explosions tore through crowds on Boylston Street she said, her time could not have mattered less.

"That’s when I saw just hundreds of people running towards me," said Kendrick, who had already managed to get back to her luggage by the buses and began walking back to the finish to check on waiting family.

"They were bringing stretchers and … I tried not to look," she said. "The cops were yelling ‘why are you still here? Get out, we don’t know if there are any more.’"

Kendrick did find her family safe.

Brian Herr, 50, Hopkinton

Selectman Brian Herr was less than a mile from the finish line when police barricaded off the rest of the route, trapping a large group of overtired and dehydrated runners.

"We were in that for about 20 to 30 minutes," said Herr, who had been running the last six miles with his children. "(Runners) were seizing up, and they were cold, and a couple went down."

Jen Tedstone, 37, Hopkinton

"I finished and was at the family meeting area for the 'T' on Clarendon when the bombs went off," first-time marathoner Jennifer Tedstone wrote, remembering the unusual quiet. "It was so surreal."

Tedstone said someone uneasily voiced the thought that the noise might have been celebratory cannons, but that the thought was soon rejected, as security began shutting down streets, and ambulance sirens blared.

"That’s when the panic set in for all of us," Tedstone wrote. "Everyone frantically grabbed their cell phones trying to reach loved ones to make sure they were safe and to let all their friends and family know they were safe."

Tedstone first found her daughter and mother-in-law, who had escaped the finish line, but had seen the first bomb go off, and then her husband.

Ann Iaccarino, 49, Shrewsbury

Moments after crossing the finish line of her 20th Boston Marathon Ann Iaccarino, who was only 25 feet away from the explosion at the finish line, initially thought the large noise she heard was just fireworks.

"It was on my heels," said Iaccarino.

Once a volunteer with the Boston Area Athletic Association said a bomb had gone off and urged everyone to run, Iaccarino raced toward the Prudential Center to find her daughter, who was in the grandstands at the Prudential Center, and later met her at the Boston Public Garden.

"I’ve never experienced that sound," said Iaccarino. "At first we thought it was fireworks. As soon as we realized it was a bomb we ran down the road. It was chaos. People were running everywhere."

David Kittredge, 43, Hudson

Lucky is the word that constantly comes to the mind of David Kittredge when he looks back on Monday’s explosions at the Boston Marathon.

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Kittredge’s wife and children had planned to watch him run through Kenmore Square and try to get to the finish line, but he convinced them it would be easier to see him run through Natick.

"It was a really good move," said Kittredge, who was unhurt in the explosions. "I was very lucky."

Kittredge had just turned onto Hereford Street, less than a mile from the finish line, when he heard the blasts.

"It was really chaos at the end," said Kittredge, whose wife called him to make sure he was safe. "It really hasn’t sunk in right now."

David Martin, 39, Hudson

Less than a mile away from the finish line of his first Boston Marathon, David Martin’s pace came to an abrupt stop.

"We saw people crowding the street and coming toward us telling us the race was over, the race was over," said Martin. "Luckily, I was one of the slower runners."

After seeing Martin run past her at Mile 20, Martin’s wife planned to go to the finish line, but got stuck at the Fenway T-station and did not make it to the finish line.

Martin got in touch with his wife and walked back to the Fenway T station where he reunited with his wife.

"There were definitely some moments of panic," said Martin. "I just gave her a huge hug."

Thom Kenney, 43, Sudbury

Thom Kenney had just crossed the finish line when the first blast happened.

"It was a very, very loud explosion – a lot like an IED," said Kenney, an Army Captain who was running his first Boston Marathon since returning from a 14-month deployment in Afghanistan last year. "The runner next to me, we looked at each other like we recognized that sound – she was an Iraq veteran."

Kenney said he didn’t see the immediate chaos on Boylston Street after the blast, and didn’t yet know what was going on when he called his wife and two children, who were inside the Prudential Center when the second bomb went off.

"They said that people were starting to run – it was a madhouse at the Pru," he said.

Trying to reach them, Kenney circled up a block and headed their way on St. James Avenue, where he saw a makeshift triage forming.

"People were coming in with cuts and other injuries – one woman looked like she had burns on her arms. That’s when I knew something much more serious was going down," he said.

Kenney eventually reunited with his family, and "fearing the worst," said his first instinct was to get them out of the city.

Nicole Arpiarian, 42, Sudbury

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Nicole Arpiarian was changing at the buses after finishing her race about 20 minutes before when she heard the first explosion.

"I thought, dear God, did a building just fall down?" she said.

When the second blast rang out, Arpiarian said she scanned the sky for airplanes or any other source of the noise – "I thought, OK, something’s going on."

With "police car after police car" zipping by, Arpiarian said she texted her husband at home to find out what was going on. When he told her about the explosions, she said she and her sister, who was also in Boston with her, "just took off."

"I had just run the race of my life," said Arpiarian, who finished in 3:35:55, according to the BAA results. "I was happy for about 20 minutes.

"It’s just so awful – it’s disgusting."

Erin Reeves, 31, Framingham

Marathon staff were just placing a medal around Reeves’s neck when the first bomb exploded.

"We turned around and saw smoke and fire," said the Lincoln-Sudbury grad, who coaches tennis at Wayland High. "Nobody knew what had happened – there was this panicked, frantic scene … people were running, screaming."

She added it was clear "it was something that was not planned."

Reeves quickly tried to find her family, whom she had seen earlier at the end of the race.

"My first thought was, hopefully they left the finish line," she said.

She eventually found them, and they left the city together.

"It was terrifying," she said. "It was a horrible sight."

Paul Joseph, 44, Natick

Joseph, a former Natick selectman, was on Commonwealth Avenue about to turn onto Hereford Street and estimated he was about 0.3 miles away from the finish line. By the time he got to Boylston Street, runners had stopped, he said.

"All of us heard two very loud explosions," Joseph said, adding some people initially thought the first one was thunder.

"I was really impressed by how quickly public safety people kicked in," he said. "There were streams of police cars and ambulances coming through."

Joseph, whose family had stayed in Natick, said there was confusion after the blasts, as people tried to connect with loved ones. He said he ran his remaining mileage by Christian Science plaza and took the 5 p.m. commuter rail train back to Natick.

"It’s just very surreal," said Joseph, who was running his eighth marathon Monday. "I’m not shocked by it as a lot of people are. We have to be vigilant. It’s a reality of life, especially after 9/11."

Catherine Beer, 18, Sudbury

Beer, a soccer player and the youngest MetroWest runner, finished about 40 minutes before the bombs went off. But after her family greeted her, they went back to the finish line to cheer for another runner.

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"I was separated from my family," she said, describing the huge plume of smoke that divided them. They had also planned to eat at Forum, a restaurant on Boylston Street where the bombs exploded.

"I'm pretty rattled. I'm less physically drained than I am mentally," she said.

John Ouano, 46, Northborough

John Ouano said he didn’t realize the gravity of events until he saw a man covered in blood at the corner of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

"It was obvious that it wasn’t his blood," Ouano said, and that he had been helping victims.

Frantic, Ouano said he began borrowing cellphones to get a hold of his wife and children, who had been waiting for him at the finish line.

Ouano said he was wandering aimlessly down the street in a daze when he heard his name. A business partner spotted him and let him know that he had received word from Ouano’s family that they were safe.

"I can’t explain the emotion (I felt)," Ouano said. "I basically just had to stop and almost literally collapse into their arms."

Ouano said his wife and kids heard the blast and saw the smoke from their vantage point on Boylston Street. He said his daughter was crying, but his 11-year-old son was stoic.

"The first thing he said was, ‘Don’t worry mom. Boston will take care of us.’"

Sandy Gittlen, 42, Northborough

Sandy Gittlen had just crested Heartbreak Hill in Newton when she was stopped and informed of an "incident" near the finish line.

"I certainly didn’t know what was going on," said Gittlen, who had family friends about two blocks from the blasts that were not harmed.

"It just makes me sad. Those (charity runners) were out there doing so much good," she said. "Horrible. Horrible."

William Dupre, 49, Northborough

William Dupre said he was stopped about three-tenths of a mile before the finish line of his third Boston Marathon. His mind raced when he heard why.

"My wife was at the finish line," he said, along with his niece and sister-in-law.

Dupre said the trio luckily were across the street from the blasts, but heard and felt their power and quickly ran away as the smoke and dust began to rise.

Dupre said he and other runners were corralled in the street for about an hour. He said he was able to find his family several hours later and get out of the city.

Alexis Avila, 37, Wayland

Alexis Avila of Wayland said he was at the 25.2-mile mark on Commonwealth Avenue when everyone stopped running.

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"Runners were telling other runners don’t go to Boston. We didn’t know what was going on," Avila said.

As everyone was "banged up from the run," Avila said people were having trouble walking, and he was getting cramps from the cold.

"Good Samaritans were handing out trash bags, handing out water so we wouldn’t get dehydrated," Avila said. "The owners of the buildings were welcoming runners inside to keep warm, which is where I went."

Avila borrowed a cellphone from a spectator and got in touch with his mother.

"It was the best conversation ever. It was a wonderful feeling," Avila recalled.

Two hours later on Commonwealth Avenue Avila reunited with his parents, wife Sandra, and "Little Brother" Danielson Gomes, all of whom had been waiting on the bleachers across the street from where the bombs went off.